Always Another Adventure

I thought I'd put all the links in one place. Programme One of The Canoe Boys is now online . It should remain there until 21st November, possibly until 23rd November. (Personally, I think prog 2 is best.) To use the BBC Scotland Player you need a free program, RealPlayer installed in your computer. The BBC Website for the programme will remain live for longer with the audio slide-show , TV feature from the Adventure Show, recording diary with additional video shot on route and an interview with Duncan Winning on kayak history. Buy the book here.

The excellent online team at Scotland Outdoors have produced a new website where some of the extra elements of The Canoe Boys programmes can come together. There's an audio slideshow, with some of the supeb stills from Alastair Dunnett's private scrapbook and my Podcast with Duncan Winning recorded before the trip where we talk about the boats they used. A second webpage contains my diary from the recordings which previously appeared on this site, and some links to short videos I shot along the way. The programmes start next wednesday at 11.30am on Radio Scotland and online here .

I'm delighted to say the television feature about our Canoe Boys programmes can be watched online. On the bottom of this Scotland Outdoors webpage you'll find a link called 'Watch the Canoe Boys feature'. The radio programmes are the main body of work and start next Wed 14th Nov at 11.30am. Online you can listen live or for seven days after transmission .

This image of the Canoe Boys, from 1934, comes from Alastair Dunnett's personal scrapbook. Next Sunday at 1pm I'll give a presentation about them at Paddle 07 in Perth . I'll have a load of stills like this courtesy of Ninian Dunnett, Alastair's son who has republished his Dad's book . On video, I'll have a feature about the trip I made with Cailean MacLeod, paddling key sections of the original route for three radio documentaries. The feature goes out on BBC-2 Scotland's Adventure Show on 7th November. Cailean is also taking a workshop at this event. Also on video, I'll have two extended interviews. The first is with Ninian Dunnett, who takes us through the famiuly album and explains how the Canoe Boys trip fit into his Father's busy life. The second is with SCA Honorary President Duncan Winning, who met the original Canoe Boys and puts their achievement into historical context. Between these, I'll talk for about twenty minutes about what we we

This cutting comes from Sir Alastair Dunnett's own scrapbook. If this interest you, I'll give a presentation using these photos and video at the Scottish Canoe Association's Paddle 07 event. It's at 1pm in Perth on Sunday 28th October . After his kayak voyage up Scotland's west coast in 1934, Alastair Dunnett collected all his photos and newspaper cuttings into one scrapbook. I interviewed his son Ninian last week, chatting as we flicked through this small piece of Scottish history. Ninian has kindly given me access to the photos and cuttings from that book. Ninian was the final interview for our Canoe Boys programmes. Since the last recording, all the audio material has been played into a computer in Newtonmore, ready for editing. As I write, Ninian's interview is probably going in too. Getting all the audio into sync is taking time, since it was often recorded on three separate machines. Once that's done, the producer Margaret Wilks picks out the best bits

Well that's the end of the second and final block of recording which was on the Isle of Skye. I'm slightly sun burn after the past three days of chatting to many different people and being afloat in our kayaks. I've posted some more photos to my Flickr gallery for the Canoe Boys .

More Photos Here And even more photos here Day One First task was to work out a way of getting decent quality sound by putting microphones in condoms, pinning them to the BAs, and then putting the mini-disc recorders in waterproof food-bags stuffed inside the back pockets. We spent a bit of time making sure that system worked. The recording began on the Island of Seil with Ken Lacey of Sea Kayak Scotland, chatting about the area, safety and the rise in popularity of sea kayaking. We're missing out the section in the Clyde and only paddling the highlights. This is a radio production not an expedition (more's the pity). We're using two P&H boats, a LV Quest and a new Cetus. The Cetus is going down very well with Cailean and when Ken tried it today he was highly impressed. Day Two The Dorus Mor, Gaelic for "Great Door" has a deservedly fearsome reputation. Tide moves at 8knts springs, so the day after spring tide, and a forecasted Force 6 wind against it, we ex

We are back from the first stint of recording (5 days). The weather gods shined on us in the Dorus Mor, Seil island, Oban Bay, Duart Castle, Fishinish, Tobermory, Ardmore, Dervaig, Ardnamurchan and everywhere else we visited and got the recorders out!! I've uploaded a heap of photos tonight to an online folder on my Flickr photo pages of the last few days. Simon's been posting on his personal blog .